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Gun show exemption likely first target of Obama plan

INDIANAPOLIS -- At the Indy 1500 Gun & Knife Show that opens Friday at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, not all gun sellers will be treated equally. The majority of merchants will be licensed dealers behind

Gun show exemption likely first target of Obama plan

LIsten to a customer and employee of a licensed gun dealer talk about the criminal background check required of a purchaser and respond to President Obama's proposal to require the same from customers of unlicensed dealers at gun shows.
The Indianapolis Star

President's proposal calls for universal background checks for all dealers.

David Mikkelson watches as employee Fred Schwomeyer runs a background check for his pistol purchase at Family Indoor Shooting Range in Indianapolis on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013.(Photo: Robert Scheer, The Indianapolis Star)

The majority of merchants will be licensed dealers behind folding tables stacked with Glocks, Colts and Berettas. When they sell a gun, they will be required to run a criminal background check on the buyer.

But about 10 percent of the dealers won't need to check the criminal histories of their customers. They are unlicensed and exempt from conducting background checks.

Eliminating that exemption is a centerpiece of President Barak Obama's sweeping gun control initiative. Academics, Capitol Hill observers and gun control advocates say closing the exemption is the most likely part of the gun package that both Republicans and Democrats in Congress could support.

"I think it will be hard (for Congress) to vote against it on its own," said former Indiana U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University in Bloomington. "Most people feel it could have a favorable impact in keeping guns away from criminals."

Even some licensed gun dealers said they would back the universal background checks, contending gun shows are an easy way for criminals to buy guns.

"You can go to the fairgrounds this weekend with a handful of money and come out with a handful of guns and never even have to identify yourself," said Don Davis, longtime owner of Don's Guns in Indianapolis. "Nobody ever came in my shop that I didn't run their record."

The 1994 Brady Law requires federally licensed gun merchants to run instant background checks on customers. Anyone with a prior felony conviction, the mentally ill or those convicted of domestic violence can't buy a gun.

Gun store owners, who are all licensed, have to conduct background checks when they sell weapons at gun shows, as well.

But everyone else gets a pass. They include gun hobbyists, collectors and small-scale merchants.

Gun advocates say the exemption is necessary because it would be impractical and unwieldy for every individual who sells a few guns to conduct background checks.

"If I'm a collector or inherited a gun and I decide to sell it, I should be able to do so just as I would sell a car to a friend," said Ashley Varner, a spokeswoman for the gun show. "To call something a loophole is to cast a shadow or doubt of suspicion on the shows."

Pistols for sale at Family Indoor Shooting Range in Indianapolis. Inventory has gone from about 250 weapons to 50 in recent weeks.(Photo: Robert Scheer, Indianapolis Star)

Varner said many gun sales are between family members who have inherited guns or collectors who are exchanging them.

"This gun show is a wholesome environment in which people can bring their families and everyone can come and do some shopping, not much different than the RV show that is also here," Varner said.

Although the background checks take as little as 10 minutes, some merchants wondered how they would be implemented for every daily transaction.

"This is a lot of feel good stuff, but who is supposed to manage it," said Mike Hilton, owner of Family Indoor Shooting Range.

Hilton said about 1 percent of his customers are denied because of a felony discovered during the background check. When they are denied, he charges a service fee to cover the time it takes to run the check.

The background check requires the buyer to answer 15 questions on a form provided by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. An employee then calls a phone number run by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the buyer's record is checked against the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Bob Wanamaker, owner of Wanamaker Guns on the Southeastside, said he has denied about 25 people sales since 1998. He speculated that the checks discourage people with records from coming to shops.

"It's real quick," said Wanamaker, who favors the checks at gun shows.

A recent Washington Post-ABC poll indicated that 88 percent of Americans said they support background checks at gun shows, including 89 percent of Republicans.

Heather McCabe, an assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Social Work who studies gun issues, said gun control advocates have reason to be optimistic.

"In the decade I have been following this topic I have never heard the kind of reasoned conversations we are having now," McCabe said. "For the longest time only the pro-gun side was engaged with any intensity. Now I see the gun control side speaking out, and that can make the difference."

Some gun buyers questioned whether shutting the exemption would make a dent in crime.

David Mikkelson, a retired U.S. Army colonel who was buying a .380 caliber handgun at Family Indoor Shooting Range, said background checks for every transaction were "ridiculous."

"You've got thousands of neighbor-to-neighbor transactions out there everyday," he said. "Most of the time you are trading and sharing an item with someone you know. People aren't selling them to strangers."

But John Havener, 60, Indianapolis, who was at the gun range for target practice, said closing the loophole could result in fewer guns in the hands of convicted criminals.

"If they are making the gun stores do the check, they should make the law complete and make everyone do it," he said. "It may make a little bit of difference. But I think the felons will find a way around it. They always do."